If you have dogs, then you know how their table manners are, regardless of the size or breed.

I decided to assist them with their dining habits by elevating their bowls off the ground and securing them into a table.

This will not only help with knocked over bowls and spilled food, but it will also be an appealing woodworking piece that will be nice enough to leave in the open.

Sooooo... let's get started!

Step 1: Materials and Tools

This is really one of the more simple projects I've ever done. The hardest part was finding a piece of live edge wood (which isn't necessary - you can use lumber).

Materials:

Piece of Wood: You need something that is wide and long enough to fit your dog bowls. My board is 12" wide and just over 30" long.
Hair Pin Legs: I got these Hair Pin Legs off of Amazon - their reviews were great for the price. These legs also weigh more than my new kitchen cabinet hardware so they're high quality.
Dog Food Bowls: I needed 2 Dog Food Bowls and 1 water bowl. Food bowls hold 3.5 cups of food and I also got them off of Amazon. Make sure these bowls have a lip on them so they can rest in the holes!

Tools:

Jigsaw: This will be for cutting out the holes.
Skilsaw/Table Saw: This will be for cutting the length of the board.
Drill: This is for drilling starter holes for the jigsaw blade to fit in, as well as screwing on the legs.
Polyurethane: Some type of clear coat is needed to keep the wood for absorbing dog slobber. I used semi-gloss. Clear Sating would work too.

Step 2: Measurements

The first measurement you'll need to make is for the length of the board you'll be using.

To determine the length, just set the legs and however many bowls you are trying to use upside down on to the piece of wood. Make sure they are placed where you'll ideally want them when it's finished. I left a 1.5" gap between the bowl lids.

Once this is determined, you can draw a line on the board where you want to cut, and you can either make that cut now or wait until all of your cuts are ready to be made. I decided to cut mine here so there would be less wood to work with - this live edge wood is about 2.5" thick and extremely heavy.

For the bowl measurements:

Find the exact center of your board, both in terms of length and width and draw a dot.
Measure the width of your bowl from rim to rim (mine is 11.5")
Take half that measurement (5 3/4") and that is how far away from the center dot your bowl diameter needs to be. So draw a line 5 3/4" away from the dot in a few different directions.
Then place your bowl within those lines and it should fit perfectly.
Trace the bowl!
Now this is the MAX diameter the bowl can be before it falls through. Since our bowls have lips on it, we need to bring this diameter in. My bowl lip is 1/4" wide so I will bring my diameter in by that much.
Use a compass or a string tied to a pencil to get a decent looking circle.

Remember, the lip of the bowls will cover any imperfections when drawing or cutting out the circles. They don't need to be perfect.

Step 3: Make the Cuts

If you didn't cut the board like I did in the previous step, now's the time to do that. Cut this by the length you want and as you measured previously.

Next, you'll begin drilling out holes within the inner diameter you drew. I drilled out 4 holes at opposite ends for each dog bowl hole. This will allow me to fit a jigsaw blade into the board and begin cutting. The multiple holes just makes it easier to re-align and get back on track with your jigsaw.

Once all the holes are punched through, take your jigsaw and follow your inner diameter.

You should have 3 giant holes now (hopefully much more circular than mine) and go ahead and try to fit your bowls into the holes and make adjusted cuts as needed.

Step 4: Install the Hairpin Legs

Flip your table over so the bottom side will be facing upwards.

Then align your 4 Hair Pin Legs and place them where you'd like in each of the corners. I used a Metal Carpentar L Square to line up the legs, but it isn't necessary.

Pre-drill the holes in at least 2 places on your hair pin legs - you can choose to fasten this on with more screws if you'd like, but this isn't holding a 100lb bed or anything. Just a few lbs of food and water at a time.

Then, simply screw in the provided screws.

Step 5: Sand and Clear Coat

The final stage of this project is to give the whole project a good sanding.

I started off with an 80 grit sandpaper to really cut down the rough spots. Then wipe it off with a damp rag - this will not only clean off the dust, but will also raise some of the wood so when you hit it with the 220 grit sandpaper, it will really give it that perfect finish.

Once sanded and wiped down thoroughly, it is time to apply a clear coat.

I chose to go with a Semi-Gloss Polyutherane but any type of finish will do. I applied this and let it dry for 24 hours. After 24 hours, come back with 220 grit sand paper and give it a light sanding. Then re-apply another coat of clear coat. I stopped at 2 coast, but feel free to pile it on as this will be holding your dogs slobber for extended periods of time.